By Any Means Necessary, a political activist group in favor of affirmative action, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against legislation eliminating gender and race-based preferential treatment in university and other public institutions.
The state's constitution will now be amended to include the new legislation, which bans affirmative action in certain cases.
The proposal will go into effect Dec. 22.
Newly elected MSU Trustee George Perles said he felt the proposal would not affect the university.
"I just want everybody to have the opportunity like you and yours to learn at a university," Perles said.
Trustee Dorothy Gonzales said she thought the state was past such discussion in terms of equality and diversity.
"I think an educated society benefits everybody," Gonzales said.
The group, BAMN, argues the proposal was fraudulently placed on the ballot and violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, according to the Detroit Free Press.
George Washington, a lawyer for BAMN, said the suit was filed immediately after the election and said this would be a difficult case.
"This is going to be a political fight, and right now we are trying to build up public support for the lawsuit," Washington said.
"A majority cannot take a minority's right away in an election."
BAMN spokeswoman Donna Stern, said the proposal was unconstitutional and agreed with Washington that the "majority should not be allowed to take a minority's right away."
"Segregation is illegal and has been illegal since the '60s," Stern said. "That is why we feel this law is illegal."
Max McPhail, media relations director for the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative for Proposal 2, an anti-affirmative action group, said activist groups such as BAMN cannot be taken seriously because they file many lawsuits.
"BAMN is an extremely radical group," McPhail said.
"They have filed numerous lawsuits in the past and most have been thrown out of court. This suit seems like one last desperate attempt to get rid of this act."
McPhail said his group supports the MCRI because they saw affirmative action as discriminating against people based on characteristics they could not control, such as race.
"It reaffirms that no one will be discriminated because of race, language or religion," McPhail said.
"This new law helps eliminate that discrimination."
According to the Detroit Free Press, Gov. Jennifer Granholm was named as supporting BAMN's appeal but Granholm's spokeswoman, Liz Boyd, said she had not heard about the lawsuit.
Boyd said she would not comment Thursday.
Officials at the University of Michigan, which uses affirmative action in its admissions policy, were unable to be reached for comment regarding the lawsuit.
McPhail said the new legislation wouldn't cause any problems if university and government institutions didn't discriminate from the beginning.
"If colleges treat people equally, there shouldn't be a problem," McPhail said.
"Unfortunately, the University of Michigan admits it treats people differently, and if the president of that organization says they will continue to fight against this, then she should have to resign."
